The Three Distilleries Pathway

Tuesday 18th April 2017

Early at the start of this day I caught a bus from the Port Charlotte Youth Hostel on the island of Islay through Bowmore and Port Ellen, the largest towns on the island, and didn’t get off the bus until I reached the Lagavulin Distillery. I must say that for many years Lagavulin has been my favourite scotch whisky and I was looking forward to visiting the place where this gorgeous, heavily peated delight is distilled. In fact the only reason I had come to Islay was so that I could visit this distillery whose produce I have adored for many years, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was fortunate to be taken around the distillery on my own which enabled me to ask as many questions as I wanted and savour every special moment from sampling the fermented wash to standing in the control room and seeing the screens that the distillers use to monitor the process from start to finish. This is a lovely, relaxed distillery full of grandeur and quality as befits the rich, smoky whisky that is produced within these walls. It was astonishing that such a quaint, little distillery could produce such an exquisite whisky that is admired the world over.

At the end of the tour I had a taste of the distiller’s edition as I am already very familiar with the sixteen year old, but found that the second maturation in old sherry casks made this special edition too sweet for my taste. The sixteen year old Lagavulin is what I have at home, and it is that intense peaty taste that I have fallen in love with and is unrivalled, and cannot be improved. From the distillery, while trying to savour the memory of the distillery tour, I made my way east along the road through the tiny community of Lagavulin until on the far side I came across a footpath that has been built to link the three distilleries on the south coast of Islay. I soon came to a signpost pointing down a lane towards Dunyvaig Castle so heading past a row of cottages I reached a row of outcrops that fringe the coast where great views could be seen of the Lagavulin Distillery across Lagavulin Bay. Dunyvaig Castle is severely ruined and there are warning notices deterring anyone who might want to climb the deteriorating walls, but I had eyes only on the small distillery across the bay.

Back onto the pathway I continued east along the wide, tarmacked path to the Ardbeg Distillery, the easterly of the three distilleries, where I found a rather more extensive complex of buildings than at Lagavulin. However when I got there I discovered that I had just missed the tour and there wouldn’t be another for almost four hours. It was disappointing, but I hadn’t checked the timing of the tour prior to coming to the distillery, and I certainly hadn’t booked in advance. Turning around I headed back up the road stopping on top of the rocky knoll that overlooks the distillery before setting off back along the Three Distillery Walk. The path follows the road between Ardbeg and Port Ellen giving whisky lovers easy walking from the ferry terminal to the three closely located distilleries, but I didn’t like it. The path is heavily manufactured to enable it to be accessible not only for walkers and cyclists but also pushchairs and wheelchairs. It bulldozes through the landscape like the road whereas I would prefer a path that works with the contours and blends in with the surroundings.

After a lingering stop at Lagavulin, I looked at the distillery longingly and blew it a kiss before moving on along the pathway. When I reached the Laphroaig Distillery, the home of the most popular Islay malt, I found that the next tour wasn’t for another couple of hours, which left me wondering what I should do. I wandered along the pathway towards Port Ellen until I reached MacGregor’s monument where I had my lunch, and eventually decided that I would wait around for the tour regardless of what I’d previously planned and then I would decide what I would do. First, to kill a bit of time I headed inland on a track that is signposted the Croft Walk, but I have no idea what that walk is. At the top of a rise I came off the road to my right to pass a Neolithic standing stone and up onto a low, craggy ridge. This is Druim nam Madagan that runs parallel to the coast while the reservoir behind it feeds the Laphroaig Distillery. Albeit brief I enjoyed this ridge as the outcrops and firm ground underfoot reminded me of walking in the Lake District.

Towards the coast I could clearly see the Laphroaig Distillery and that was where I headed onto a track that led me back onto the road not far from the entrance. The tour of Laphroaig was interesting even though they are heavily geared towards tourists as they malt some of the barley themselves which is something that is now done in only a couple of distilleries. At the end I was able to sample three of the Laphroaig whiskies and although they are not bad, they are not as rich as the whiskies that I prefer. At the end of the tour I resumed my walk along the Three Distilleries Pathway on the tarmac lane all the way into Port Ellen. Of course, this walk was just an excuse to visit the whisky distilleries, especially Lagavulin, but while I visited all three I only actually did the tour around two of them. They are two very different distilleries, also two very different tasting whiskies, and although the only walk that I enjoyed on this day was that short ridge overlooking Laphroaig, it was the whiskies that brought me to Islay.